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A New South Wales priest is listed for court proceedings

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 14 August 2018

A Catholic priest in northern New South Wales, John Patrick Casey, 68, is listed for a hearing in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court regarding child-sex offences allegedly committed in New South Wales some years ago. The court's case number is 2015/00201591. John Patrick Casey is a priest of the Lismore diocese, which takes in the NSW north coast from the Queensland border to Camden Haven, south of Port Macquarie. The city of Lismore is where the diocese has its headquarters.

Some background

A church website says that Fr John Casey, of the Lismore diocese, was ordained on 2 February 1974. He has ministered in a number of parishes in that diocese.

He has also spent time away from this diocese. A website of the Townsville diocese in north Queensland says that in 1978 Fr John Casey (on loan from the Lismore diocese) was appointed for one year to the parish of Ingham in the Townsville diocese. He returned to the Lismore diocese at the end of 1979.

In the late 1980s, the annual edition of the Australian Catholic Directory listed Fr John Casey as the Parish Priest in charge of the parish of "Our Lady of Perpetual Succour" in Mallanganee (situated to the west of the city of Lismore). Some sculptures by Father John Patrick Casey were placed on display at this parish.

In the 1990s Fr John Patrick Casey was the parish priest at Camden Haven (Laurieton) in the south of the diocese. In the late 1990s, he had a senior role in the diocese, as one of the diocese's four Regional Vicars — he was the Regional Vicar for the diocese's south (the Macleay Region).

After being at Camden Haven (Laurieton) until 2004, Fr John Patrick Casey was appointed to his most recent parish the "Mary Help of Christians" parish at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour.

As well as working in parishes, John Patrick Casey has also worked as a part-time police chaplain, with duties such as conducting funerals and other religious services for police officers.

The matter of John Patrick Casey is being conducted by detectives from the NSW Police's Richmond Local Area Command, which has headquarters in Lismore. The detectives are dealing with information which had been received by Australia's national child-abuse Royal Commission.

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Since 1993, Broken Rites Australia has been researching the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Too often, the church supported the offending clergy while ignoring the victims. For example, Broken Rites has shown how the church shielded the criminal priest Father Gerald Ridsdale for 32 years without reporting his crimes to the police. Finally, in 1993, some Father Ridsdale victims contacted the police. These victims also contacted the newly-formed Broken Rites.
This photo demonstrates why Broken Rites was needed. In the photo, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale (left, in sunglasses and hat) walks to court, accompanied by his support person (Bishop George Pell, then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne), when Father Ridsdale was pleading guilty to his first batch of criminal charges in May 1993. But no bishop accompanied the victims, who felt deserted by the church leaders. Therefore, since 1993, Broken Rites research has supported many of the Catholic Church's victims, as shown on this website. Read More